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Stone Arabia

Stone ArabiaThere's a fine tradition of pop-music novels (here's to you, Elaine Jesmer and Number One With a Bullet), and Stone Arabia joins...Stone ArabiaFictionDana SpiottaThere's a fine tradition of pop-music novels (here's to you, Elaine Jesmer and Number One With a Bullet), and Stone Arabia joins...2011-07-13Scribner

There’s a fine tradition of pop-music novels (here’s to you, Elaine Jesmer and Number One With a Bullet), and Stone Arabia joins the genre’s upper echelons with the transfixing story of rock musician Nik Worth, a fictional almost-pop star in the ’80s. He has withdrawn from public life but continues to make music, releasing handcrafted CDs only to those closest to him and writing fake, intricate reviews and self-interviews. Is he a genius madman, or a sane artist unsullied by 21st-century American idolatry? The tale is told by his sister, who is equal parts ambivalent enabler and ultimate fan. Spiotta, author of the must-read Eat the Document, has created another movingly fab narrative; it’s as though Nabokov had written a rock novel. A